1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to devices for disk recording/playback with the disk held vertically.
2. Description of Related Art
FIGS. 12 and 13 are side cross-sectional views illustrating a device for recording onto/playing back from a disk D in an upright position (see Japanese Laid-Open Pat. App. Pub. No. 11-273218). In this device, a panel 2 on which a turntable 6 is fitted is supported on a pivot 20 in an upper end of a chassis 1 as a case, in which the disk D is inserted in an upright posture. The chassis 1 is fixed on a base 9, and the panel 2 is rotated by the shifting of a cam plate 90 on the base 9. A surface of the chassis 1 that opposes the turntable 6 has an opening 18, and the turntable 6 fits into a center hole D1 in the disk D through the opening 18.
The lower end of the chassis 1 has an opening, through which a stop 3 enters the lower end portion of the chassis 1 in order to support the lower end of the disk D; the stop 3 is spring-urged and is supported on a pivot 32 on the base 9. The panel 2 is furnished with a protuberance 25, which comes into contact with the stop 3.
When inserting the disk D into the chassis 1, the user opens the panel 2, as shown in FIG. 12. The turntable 6 comes apart from the chassis 1, and the stop 3 catches the lower end of the disk D.
Under this condition, the cam plate 90 is shifted to close the panel 2. Because the disk D is supported by the stop 3 and its position with respect to height is determined, the turntable 6 accurately fits into the center hole D1 in the disk D through the opening 18. Thereafter, as shown in FIG. 13, the protuberance 25 of the panel 2 pushes the stop 3 to rotate it clockwise. The stop 3 comes apart from the lower end of the disk D so that the disk D can spin. It should be noted that a damper (not shown), which clamps the disk D between it and the turntable 6, is furnished flanking the chassis 1 on the side opposite the panel 2.
Meanwhile, a disk record/playback device as shown in FIG. 11 has been proposed in recent years, taking design appearance into consideration (see, for example, Japanese Laid-Open Pat. App. Pub. No. 11-185335). In this device, the lower end of the panel 2 is supported on a pivot 20 on the chassis 1, and a turntable 6 for rotating a disk D in an upright position is furnished on the chassis 1. The disk D is placed on the back face of the panel 2 so that the disk D fits on the turntable 6 when the panel 2 is closed against the chassis 1.
Nevertheless, merely placing the disk D on the panel 2 may cause the disk D to fall off from the panel 2 when the panel 2 being pivoted, and for this reason, a catch 30 is furnished on the back face of the panel 2 for supporting the lower end of the disk D. The turntable 6 is formed with, as is well-known, a sloping face 60 where its fore-end part is tapered, and when the panel 2 is closed, the circumference of the center hole D1 in the disk D makes contact with the sloping face 60. Thus, the disk D is slightly lifted and comes apart from the catch 30 so that the disk D can rotate.
In this case, it is conceivable to structure the turntable 6 with a ball chuck so that the disk D can be mounted by hand directly onto the turntable 6. The structure of the ball chuck is as shown in FIG. 14, in which balls 61 provided within the side face of the turntable 6 are urged outward with compression springs 62 so that the balls 61 come into the center hole D1 in the disk D to hold the disk D. Mounting the disk D by hand, however, risks scratching the disk's signal surface. For this reason, from the viewpoint of protecting the disk's signal surface, the configuration illustrated in FIG. 11 is adopted.
In the device illustrated in FIG. 11, the amount of lifting of the disk should be made large for the disk D to be lifted to come apart reliably from the catch 30. This, however, requires that the sloping face 60 be lengthened. This would increase the height of the turntable 6, leading to enlargement in the front-to-rear device thickness.
In view of this point, another conceivable configuration is that the stop 3 as illustrated in FIGS. 12 and 13 is attached as it is to the lower end of the panel 2 in the FIG. 11 configuration. However, when closing the panel 2 in such a configuration, the stop 3 disengages first and the disk D thereafter fits on the turntable 6 due to the fact that the panel 2 is supported on the pivot 20 on its lower end. This causes the disk D to fall off from the panel 2. In other words, with the configuration as illustrated in FIGS. 12 and 13, what makes it possible to disengage the stop 3 from the disk D after the disk D has been fitted onto the turntable 6 is the fact that the panel 2 is supported pivotably on the pivot at the upper end of the chassis 1. If the configuration as illustrated in FIGS. 12 and 13 is adapted as it is to a device in which the lower end of the panel 2 is supported pivotably on the pivot 20 on the chassis 1, it is impossible to obtain the effect of holding the disk D accurately until the disk fits onto the turntable 6.